Dwayne Johnson Talks DC Superhero He’s Going to Play; Reveals 3 Clues Including That the Character Has Never Been on Screen

Steve is currently at CinemaCon, which is a convention where studios push their upcoming films by showing promo materials, new footage, and providing interviews with the stars. Paramount is promoting Hercules, so Dwayne Johnson was on hand to talk about the movie as well as some of his other projects.

During a group interview, Johnson talked more about the DC character he’d like to play, and while he wouldn’t say who, he did provide some clues. Johnson said the character has never been on screen before, and combined with his other clues, likely candidates include Black Adam (the nemesis of the superhero Shazam) and Lobo (an a biker-style alien anti-hero who works as a bounty hunter/mercenary). However, Johnson also notes that they’re still looking for a writer, so don’t expect this one any time soon. Hit the jump for Dwayne Johnson’s full quotes, and sound off in the comments for who you think he’s talking about and/or a DC character you’d like to see him play.

Question: I’ve gotta ask — you replied to a tweet of mine a few months ago.

Johnson: I remember! Yeah, man.

Right, the John Stewart hashtag. What’s up with that? What’s going on there with the whole namedropping John Stewart thing? I’m curious.

Johnson: I love John Stewart!

So let’s address the green elephant in the room. Are you going to be Green Lantern?

Johnson: [Laughs] Okay, well since you asked. We’re all friends. So, you know, there’s been mutual interest with myself and DC for many years to find the right character. I, like everyone here in the room, love superheroes. So there’s been mutual interest with us for years, and we’ve been having ongoing discussions, myself and DC, for years about the right character, what the right character would be. That’s another thing, too: it had to be right.

It was going to be Black Adam for awhile, right?

Johnson: Well, here’s the thing — so we’ve been having these ongoing discussions. I won’t tell you who it is, but I’ll tell you the three qualities we’re looking for, okay? This is going to be fun!

Does he wear a ring?

Johnson: [Laughs] Can’t say that, but here we go. Here are three qualities. The first quality we were looking for was that he had to be extremely complex and have a lot going on. What that does for me as an actor and the studio is it gives us space that we can explore; his complexities. The other quality was that he had to — the character we were looking for had to be well-known but never brought to life. Then what that does again as an actor, it gives me a little bit of space, and we talked about personality. It just gives me a chance to put an imprint into his personality, with the set of tools that I could bring to the table and put a very unique twist on his personality, but still pay homage to who he is. The third thing — and most important — is he had to be a badass motherfucker, okay, and on a Superman level of power, where could throw down. In those three qualities, I’m happy we’ve found that character. Right now, we’re out to a lot of writers.

Do you think maybe you’ll be at Comic-Con saying for certain what it is?

Johnson: Comic-Con or CinemaCon?

Comic-Con. We’ll give you some time.

Johnson: Yeah, I think time, man! We need to find a writer. When is that, June? July? Yeah, possibly. So how about that? He had to be well-known –

I have a question about this. This all sounds very cool. I think a lot of us have an idea of who it might be, but I’m definitely curious if this is a character that you could be cameoing in another franchise, or if this is something that you are doing on your own, with your own movie?

Johnson: Possibly, but we haven’t discussed that — not you and I, but in terms of me and DC. [Laughs] But possibly, sure. You never know.

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